Moved from 'General Tech'

As I am not mechanically intune as many of you may be I think this is the right thread for this question but with the Title I put in, the 'similar threads' don't match up...

If this can help y'all first, my '96 Ranger's VIN is 1FTCR10AXTUD28752

Per my mechanic yesterday, all of the parts that are basically from those coming off of the frame and axle to the tire has to be imminently replaced. About a week or two ago I started telling my mechanic about a rubbing noise I was hearing and was going away while braking at the time; we thought it was just the brakes. We thought wrong.

So far I have ordered:

Spindle Bearing and Seal Kit
Rotor
Spindle Washer
Upper/Lower Ball Joints

Enough for both sides off of RockAuto and I am having trouble on trying to find the actual spindles anywhere. Within the past 12 months I was lucky to find a local place that had OEM leaf springs for this Ranger as on one side, the middle piece rusted away enough to break.

Here are a few edited pictures from my phone that I sent to my computer. The edited part is the black line like one could make with the Paint computer program of what parts I need to the right of it.

If anyone could help me please, I want to make this truck see 300,000 miles.

The pictures were taken out of the Chilton's: Truck and Van Manual 1991 - 1995 and for what little differences I know of between the 1995 and 1996 Rangers, one is that it has to get the carbon emissions test.

Hi Chris,
last week I purchased a 2001 Ranger 2wd from my neighbor.. he was the original owner. Took the truck in today to Firestone for new tires and was told both upper and lower ball joints are in bad shape and need to be repaired. Price for the job is approx. $1,000.00

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2001 Ford Ranger, 2wd XLT 3.0 V6 with 100k miles

Yo ktrim, your shop is peeing on your leg and telling you it's raining.

You can purchase a full set of Moog upper and lower control arms with upgraded ball joints already installed for around $600.

I've just done that and am going to pay a young guy around $250 to put them in for me.

Just food for thought.

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- Current: 2010 Ranger XLT 4x4 in Redfire Metallic, 4.0 L V-6, 3.73 ratio final drive, Cooper Discover HT P255/75R-15's, automatic, all-power.
- Previous: '90 Ranger XLT 2WD, 3.0L 5 spd (traded), '93 Ranger XLT 2WD, 4.0L Auto (traded), '01 Ranger XLT 2WD, 4.0L Auto (traded)

Much less than $600

Half that

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2007 Regular Cab - 2.3 DOHC - 5 Speed Auto - 4.10 Gears - Maxtrac 7" Lift - Fiberwerx 3" Fenders - Bilstein 5100 Series - 15x10 Ultra 164's - 35x12.50x15 Red Letters - Custom dents

Hell, I think I ended up paying a total of $550 for uppers (DJM uppers that were $280 on their own) and lower balljoints, inner and outer tie rods, sway bar links, the rubber spring seat gasket thing. Took me 2 days to swap, but for the first time doing it, I didn't do bad. 10 hours the first day, and 7.5 hours the next day. Of course that's also dawdling around, not in a hurry at all, and spending an hour the second day cause I though it'd be easier to put the upper balljoint in first <- Doesn't work, you'll never get the lower control arm up high enough to get the lower balljoint in.

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I seem to be having a problem finding new spindles for my 96 2wd std cab manual. Apparently there was a design change in the 95-97 range and the spindle was the focus for major change. Basically I am trying to do a full restore on all the suspension and steering components(new coil springs, ball joints all around, I/O-TREs, and bushings all around(both I-beams are in great shape as well as both of the radial arms, just need cleaning and new paint) Are the upper ball joints replaceable for this damn thing? The lowers came out with no issue but the uppers are being a pita. I removed a snap ring from each one but neither will budge. I will try the 2ton press at work tomorrow and see if that helps get them out.

Side note: Neither rockauto, autozone, oreilly or carquest/advanced auto carry the spindles for either side but have the items to "restore/rebuild" one. Also, there have been no mods done and as far as I can tell all the OEM/Factory parts are still on this thing.

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If it ain't broke, don't let your girl drive it or it will be!!

You shouldn't have to replace the spindles. They're a solid piece of steel just like the beams. Just clean them off, wire wheel them and repaint would suffice. Just don't hit the snouts with the wire wheel/brush, they have to be smooth.

Upper ball joint should pop out. They are replaceable. I'm not sure which way they come out on the I-Beam models but it should pop out the opposite side of the snap ring. Just get an 8lb hammer and whack the damn thing. It'll come out.

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2007 Regular Cab - 2.3 DOHC - 5 Speed Auto - 4.10 Gears - Maxtrac 7" Lift - Fiberwerx 3" Fenders - Bilstein 5100 Series - 15x10 Ultra 164's - 35x12.50x15 Red Letters - Custom dents

Got both ubj and lbj removed from both spindles today at work. I want to paint them since they are down to just the spindle now. I have hit one with a wire wheel as good as I can but I am not sure if it is good enough. Thoughts? Left is driver side(not cleaned) and the right is passenger(cleaned).

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If it ain't broke, don't let your girl drive it or it will be!!

Apologies for poor pictures, site size restrictions are a little obscure for decent quality.

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If it ain't broke, don't let your girl drive it or it will be!!

I'm pretty sure the rust will definitely come back through that right away.
I got mine sand blasted and powder-coated.

How much did that run you? Kind of pressed for cash since I have everything to replace under the front end lol I can have it blasted at no cost(we have a bead blaster at work) but the coating seems as if it would be a little expensive(and I don't think they would have blue like I am trying to do).

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If it ain't broke, don't let your girl drive it or it will be!!

Okay so here goes. The first place I took them to get sand blasted and powder-coated charged me $90 an hour. Then they were going to send them out to another local company to get powder coated. So I just took them myself to the other store to get powder coated.
The second store quoted me a price of $90 to sandblast AND powdercoat...
I think I ended up paying around $150 total for Springs and Knuckles to get sand blasted and powder-coated. But I could have gotten it done for $90 total if I had known

Since you can get them blasted for free I would definitely call the powder coater and get a quote. Shouldn't be too much especially if you ask them if they can throw it in with something else that they are doing in the same color.... and they have plenty of colors trust me I'm sure they have a blue you like

Snuck in and used the sand blaster on them bad boys... will use some 400gt sand paper/Emory cloth to buff the spots where the bearings go... like new spindles now!!

Attached Images

2016-11-16 16.22.15.jpg (37.7 KB, 24 views)

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If it ain't broke, don't let your girl drive it or it will be!!

Beautiful